bias

The fact that so many loyal Democrats and smug progressives will still look you in the eye and say that mainstream media bias is a right-wing conspiracy theory speaks eloquently of the corruption of American politics, individual integrity and democracy. Two depressing examples:

1. The missing mass shootings.

Kevin Downey reviews the large number of mass shootings since the Lewiston massacre, and points out that even though one would assume that a) they are all newsworthy and b) that the anti-gun journalism establishment would want such tragedies to be known, only the Maine shooting ticked off the right boxes to advance the agreed-upon MSM narrative without undermining some part of it. In addition to the high body count, the Lewiston massacre featured a white male shooter using a semi-automatic weapon (that they could call “an assault weapon”). And he apparently liked some conservative social media posts, meaning that the shooting was really Donald Trump’s fault.

Maine authorities were also warned about Robert R. Card II in plenty of time to stop him if they had followed established policies but didn’t. Oh, never mind: as with the Uvalde shooting and others, it’s the guns, the victims and the shooter that matter, not the fact that existing laws and competent law enforcement should have been sufficient to prevent the disaster.

Since the Lewiston shooting (October 25) there were ten more mass shootings, leaving 14 dead and 65 wounded. Two took place in Chicago (of course) and left 19 people shot.In one shooting involving a handgun, 15 victims were hit by gunfire. That there weren’t more deaths is moral luck. The mostly ignored shootings involved shooters “of color,” drug gatherings, parties substantially attended by non-whites, and weapons that couldn’t plausibly be called “weapons of war.”

Downey also cited the amusing idiocy of, again, Joy Behar on “The View,” produced by ABC News, showing abject gun ignorance ( I missed it–sock drawer…). She said (and no one on the set had the wit, integrity or knowledge to contradict her),”If you shoot with an AR-15, let’s say you shoot a deer, you can’t eat it because you basically demolish the animal.” She “doesn’t know the difference between an AR-15 and a bazooka,” writes Downey. That’s fair.

2. Biden’s obscure challenger.

U.S first term Presidents who get challenged for the nomination tend to lose, though it is a chicken-or-egg phenomenon. LBJ, didn’t lose, but his weak performance against Eugene McCarthy in early primaries was sufficient to make him drop out. Both Bush I and Jimmy Carter had to face down challengers, and both lost. For this reason, it seems, obscure Congressman Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) announcing that he would challenge Joe Biden in the upcoming Democratic primaries caused a mass freak-out among the party’s propaganda machine, also known as American journalism.

Washington Post columnist Dan Balz, supposedly a wise and objective political analyst (he’s less of a biased and lying hack than Philip Bump and others at the Post, but still untrustworthy) produced a column dismissing Phillips’ campaign as “built on perceived anxiety about Biden’s age,” and serves as “a placeholder for the unease about Biden, 80, that exists among many Democrats.” Perceived anxiety? Anyone who isn’t concerned that their nation’s leader is in what my father called “the Red Zone” upon his 80th birthday, meaning that “you can drop dead any second,” is delusional or irresponsible. “Unease about Biden, 80,” is similarly deceitful. “Unease about Biden, who appears increasingly infirm and addled and whose term has seen massive inflation, rampant crime, unrestrained illegal immigration, and a failed foreign policy” would be accurate. A President with Biden’s record so far would be in trouble if he were 50.

NBC News ran quoted anonymous House Democrats who said they were “simply baffled” by Phillips’ decision—Biden is doing such a good job!—and felt that Phillips’ actions “have killed a once-promising political career.” Sure—because giving the 69% of Democrats who tell pollsters they believe Biden is “too old” to serve a second term Democrats another option is sure to wreck his career…you know, like challenging an unpopular President ruined McCarthy and Ted Kennedy. The Daily Beast’s David Rothkopf—that once useful site is now the blog equivalent of MSNBC, tweeted, “He’s letting his ego lead him into threatening the future of democracy in America.” Thus do the “enemies of the people” flog the brain-scrambling mantra of the aspiring totalitarian Democratic Party democracy is a threat to democracy.

And, of course, there’s the obligatory “Republicans pounce!” diversion, with The Hill’s “Republicans watch eagerly as Phillips adds to Biden woes,” that frames the Democrats showing their terror at the possibility of a challenge to Biden as “Republicans are hoping to shift the focus away from Trump’s myriad controversies — as well as from their recently chaotic search for a Speaker of the House.”

“Vodkapundit” Stephen Green concludes, “Phillips might not have a butterfly’s chance in a hurricane of winning the nomination, but the very existence of his candidacy forces Democrats to look at things they’d rather not see. But instead of acknowledging the message, they’re kneecapping the messenger.”

And they’re making certain that their messengers kneecap the messenger. That democracy thingy is just too dangerous.

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Two afterthoughts (as I was walking Spuds):

A. It is not the news media’s function to say who should or shouldn’t be running for office. Decades ago, I criticized network political analyst Jeff Greenfield (now mercifully retired) for presumptuously opining that various announced candidates had “no business running for President.” That’s advocacy, not journalism.

B. Journalists should never “circle the wagons,” but that’s what they are doing for the Democrats and Biden.